News

Mix: iPod video, Hollywood, Motorola V3X, Jobs successor

By LC Angell ● Monday, October 17, 2005

Newsweek’s Steven Levy writes about the iPod’s new video support. “Will people be similarly impressed by viewing such fare on the 2.5-inch iPod screen? A couple of weeks ago, Jobs tested it himself with an episode of Lost. The verdict? ‘It’s not bad,’ he says. With more than 20 million iPods sold, and a new business selling TV shows, he’s not desperate, and certainly not lost.”

The New York Times’ Richard Siklos says: “The video iPod is not about to revolutionize Hollywood in the way the iPod revolutionized music. Why? Two reasons. One is that studios are not rushing to make their most popular movies and shows available for the video iPod. Perhaps even more important, mobile gadgets with access to everything that is already on television are on the way.”

In a BusinessWeek articled entitled “Atop the Apple Tree, Almost,” Arik Hesseldahl and Peter Burrow discuss the possibility of life after Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “If Jobs ever steps down, Tim Cook’s elevation to COO confirms him as the top candidate to fill his shoes. Actually, make that to try to fill them.”

Related Stories

Comments

1

“he’s not desperate, and certainly not lost”

Ok, just for that Steven Levy needs to be taken out and shot. Can’t we have articles without the stupid puns? The worst is the reports of box-office runs for the week, where every single title and line has to work in something about the movie title, like “Wallace & Gromit break the curse of this summer’s movie slump”... But I digress… ;-)

Posted by m.sherman on October 17, 2005 at 1:19 PM (CDT)

2

‘It’s not bad,’

That sounds like something to put your best selling product into!
Jobs/Apple was smart not to change the iPod so much. There is no sign of the sales slowing, adding a neat feature isn’t revolutionary, it’s a safe bet. It doesn’t affect the music side of the iPod.

Posted by skw on October 17, 2005 at 2:52 PM (CDT)

3

“One is that studios are not rushing to make their most popular movies and shows available for the video iPod (note that only Disney shared the stage with Mr. Jobs last week, and the primary motive may have been its desire to repair relations with Pixar). Perhaps even more important, mobile gadgets with access to everything that is already on television are on the way.”

The music companies weren’t rushing online either. But iTunes represented a good usable system with sufficient DRM (any DRM is better than CD’s which have none.)

As broadcast content becomes more and more portable, the broadcast industry may very well align with Apple since it probides a DRM solution. There are rampant opportunities for piracy in broadcast TV just as with music. Providing a hassle-free system for people to purchase broadcast content will probably work, just as it did for iTunes music (although on a smaller scale since fewer people will probably ever buy TV shows than music.)